Edition 2: No.100 Weekly Update from Badayl-Alternatives Dear friends, Palestine Update is back after a break. Readers have surely followed the grizzly events in Gaza when Israel led a brutal assault on the coastal strip. Over two thousand people were killed in the attacks and the numbers are adding up each day with news of…

Edition 2: No.99 Did Israel really think Hamas would turn the other cheek? What exactly are 1.5 million people supposed to live on? Is there anyone who can explain why the blockade, even if partial, of Gaza continues? By Gideon Levy …

Edition 2: No.98 The reignited cycle of violence in Palestine and Israel provides the Israeli government with exactly what it has been begging for months for, violence. However, for once, Israel may be facing a new fact of life—as the sole military power in the conflict, it has the full ability to start a widespread…

BJP Victory: A Blessing in Disguise For Muslims!? By Khalid Kamal Rumi* The thumping victory of Narendra Modi led NDA in the general elections for the 16th Lok Sabha is “potentially” poised to be the best thing to have happened to the Muslims of India in the last one decade. The emphasis, in bold,…

Edition 2: No. 95 Israel’s Water Genocide By Dr. Elias Akleh 19 May, 2014 Countercurrents.org Water is a necessity to all forms of life. Access to clean water is an essential precondition for the viability of any community. Sanitation, especially wastewater treatment, is also essential for public health, for protection of the environment, and for…

Edition 2: No. 94 66 years of ongoing Nakba – Back to Basics: The Right of Return is a national and inalienable right On the 66th commemoration of the Nakba, the movement for Palestinian liberation is in disarray. Political parties are divided, the Palestine Liberation Organization is dysfunctional, the Palestinian Authority is dependent on foreign donors with ulterior…

A must read: Why Modi could trip just before the finishing line If Modi were interested in an enlarged NDA, he would not have burnt his bridges with Mamata, Jayalalithaa, Mayawati or Naveen Patnaik Saeed Naqvi If this election campaign is to be remembered like a suspense drama, it must have…

End G4S’s complicity in Israel’s prison system In 2007, the British security company G4S signed a contract with the Israeli Prison Authority to provide security systems and other services for major Israeli prisons. On 23 February, Palestinian Arafat Jaradat was pronounced dead at Israel’s Megiddo prison, in the wake of his alleged torture at the Al Jalameh…

Does BJP have a hand in the latest massacre in Assam? By Dr Habib Siddiqui is a peace and rights activist. There is little doubt that BJP leaders’ xenophobic speeches have catalysed targeted pogrom in Assam. Justice demands that they be held accountable for their criminal role, writes Dr Habib Siddiqui from Pennsylvania DOES Narendra Modi,…

Edition 2: No. 94 Defending the Defensible: Jewish and Palestinian Boycotts ‘The Boycott is a Moral Substitute for War’ – Bertha V Corets Editorial comment Israel has officially recognized BDS as a ‘strategic threat’ to its regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid. Those who support the BDS movement are maligned and dubbed as ‘anti-Semitic’ and…

Nassar Ibrahim – Class-based resistance must provide ideological grounds to the Palestinian struggle * Editorial comment In this issue of Palestine Update we reproduce an article “Does the left remember the class struggle?” Nasar Ibrahim raises a crucial question – one which liberation struggles often delete from their focus of their end goals. Nasar…

Mass Imposition of Death Penalty in Egypt Outrageous The UN High Commision for Human Rights has strongly condemned the shocking imposition of the death penalty on 683 individuals in Egypt yesterday after mass trials that she said clearly breached international human rights law. “It is outrageous that for the second time in two months, the…

News which the media does not bring you Fact sheet on Gujarat (Myths versus Facts) In 10 years 60,000 small scale industries have been closed down. (Source: Director, Department of Economics and Statistics, Government of Gujarat.2011-12) o Gujarat ranks 5TH in F.D.I. (Source : Director, Department…

Edition 2: No. 91 US isolated in latest UN vote on Palestine Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Fri, 03/28/2014 – 17:18 http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/us-isolated-latest-un-vote-palestine The international community today took a firm stance totally isolating the United States over its opposition to Palestinian rights and its support for Israel’s criminal violations of international humanitarian law. The UN Human Rights Rights Council in…

Edition 2: No. 90 Why Land Day still matters Today, with no resolution in sight to the historic injustices inflicted upon them, Palestinians in Israel and elsewhere use this day to remember and redouble their efforts for emancipation. By Sam Bahour and Fida Jiryis Every year since 1976, on March 30, Palestinians around the…

UNHRC Resolution Passed: Sri Lanka To Face International Investigation The UN Human Rights Council has voted for a resolution which paves the way for an inquiry into rights abuses at the close of Sri Lanka’s civil war. The resolution will pave the way for an international investigation into possible…

Edition 2: No. 89 Willful Medical Negligence of Palestinian Prisoners in Israel* UN Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners affirm their fundamental rights. They require they “be treated with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings.” “There shall be no discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, sex,…